"Wake up Steven! Please wake up."

Steven almost knocked over the lamp on his dresser as he sat bolt upright in bed. His breathe came heavy and he could feel the prickle of goosebumps across his skin as beads of cold sweat poured down his back. He rubbed his eyes raw waiting for them to adjust to the darkened room.

"A dream." he told himself "It was just another dream. Go back to sleep."

In the three weeks it had taken Greg to sell his car washing business and get a job in the city filing paperwork for some big shot executive Steven had had many such dreams. They all began differently, but ended the same; with Pearl. She was always saying the same thing; always "Wake up Steven. Wake up." Sometime he could hear the echoes of other voices as well, but hers was always the loudest.

Steven lazily turned his head to the digital clock on his bed side table. 6:00 A.M. flashed back at him in bright neon green. It was thirty minutes before he had to wake up and start the daily routine his new life had planned for him i.e. wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and catch the bus for school.

"Ah jeeze man, Really? That's the perfect amount of time to do nothing. " He said crushing a pillow over his head in frustration.

With his dad holding down a respectable job and Steven being moved into the Beach City public school system it was to be an ordinary life for an ordinary kid from here on out. Closing his eyes he tried to catch up on the last, precious few minutes of sleep that might power him through Mrs. Hinckle's math class. Shifting from one side to the next for what seemed like an eternity he realized sleep would not be coming.

*sigh* "When did I start caring about getting enough sleep or what grades will show up on my next round of tests. Didn't I used to fight monsters and travel through space and stuff?" He began tracing a finger down the pillow's crinkled seam. "Pearl….I really miss you. I wish you were here right now so I could tell you-"

A sudden pain streaked across his stomach as his gem pulsed a dull pinkish hue. "OW! Ah, no not again. Please." he groaned through gritted teeth.

And just as suddenly as it had come it was gone. Steven unclenched his fists. At least this time he knew what the pain meant. He'd have to find some place secluded so he didn't blast anyone else with his latest gem power. He got up showered and ate breakfast: a banana and bagel slices again *bleh* still it was food. Steven scooped up his backpack and headed out the door.

"Okay dad I'm heading out now." He called out to his father's sleeping form sprawled out on the living room couch. *ha-ha* "No, no please you don't have to get up on my account." Steven called out sarcastically. Greg slept on, oblivious to his son leaving the apartment. "Man, dad really needs to cut back a little I think this job might actually be killing him."

Steven began to hum to himself as he slipped out the door of the Beach City apartment complex. Half way down the street now he stopped and looked up at the bus stop already crammed with kids waiting to start their school day. "Ugh, I really don't want to go back."

School had never been as fun for Steven as Connie had made it seem but then again she went to a private school.

*tch* "I bet they serve all kinds of fancy gourmet food there." He said thinking back to the disappointing salisbury steak lunch they had severed on his first day. He had seen rocks that were softer than that steak.

Lunch, unfortunately wasn't the worst part of his new life. At school Steven had learned that being different meant you were weird and being weird was fifty shades of suck. On his first day he had acquired the name "cheeseburger boy" on account of his novelty backpack and the name had stuck. "So what." he told himself, trying to stay upbeat "The gems had liked my backpack just fine….I think."

Absentmindedly he kicked a small rock off the sidewalk and into the grass where it tumbled down the hill. Steven watched as it missed one of the tree and instead bounced into a nearby chain link fence. A loud *clang* rattled along the backyards of the homes at the foot of the hill. He was about to turn and head back to the bus stop caught one trees moving out of the corner of his eye. He squinted down along the tree line. All movement had stopped.

"Argh, pull it together Steven." he chided himself. "There's nothing down there."

He turned around and began walking again. *snap* the sound of a tree branch being crushed under foot made his head spin around.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is someone there?"

Suddenly he could see it, one of the trees was moving or at least a part of it was. The short stubby thing fell to the ground before getting up and, stumbling, leapt over the chain link fence to land gracefully on the other side.

"Amethyst!?" Steven shouted. He couldn't believe it was her but the purple skin was a dead give away. "Amethyst!" He shouted again.

She must not have heard him as she ran off cutting through the backyards of suburban houses before disappearing between two homes. Steven hadn't seen either gem since the incident with Pearl and he wasn't about to let his friend slip away that easily.

"Wait for me Amethyst!" He shouted running head long down the slope of the hill. A small tree root jutting out from the edge met his foot and Steven went tumbling down slamming face first into the fence below.

*argh* "Right on the scar." He muttered as he stood up rubbing his left temple. At this rate it was threatening to become an indent if he kept banging his head into things. Placing two hands on the top of the fence he huffed as he tried to haul himself over to the other side. Barely straddling the fence for more than a few seconds he slipped off tearing his jeans as he went. *ugh* he grunted as he landed.

"Alright Amethyst" he said to himself "You'd better have a good reason for running away. I'm not in the mood for your games today."

Taking the same zigzag path as his friend Steven ran to catch up with Amethyst.

"Amethyst. Amethyst! Come on you know I don't run well." He huffed already red faced from his short sprint. He made a mental note that if he survived this run he would start working out.

Steven emerged from between the two houses Amethyst had slipped past into a rounded cul-de-sac, there was no hint of purple in sight.

*huff, huff* "Oh, come on, I probably missed my bus because of this. Amethyst? Amethyst, I know you're listening…right?" There was no reply.

Steven was about to turn around and head back up the hill when he saw her. Not Amethyst, the figure that stood before him had a leaner, taller form a dancer's body with a wave of slicked back red curls. She was standing there in the middle of the cul-de-sac as if she had been patiently waiting for him all day. Steven's mind worked faster than his mouth But that's impossible dad told me she was…

"Pearl!" Steven shouted.

"You need to wake up now Steven or it will be too late."

He took a step forward and blinked in agony as another wave of pain rocketed across his belly. This time the gem pulsed a little more frequently and shown a little brighter than it had that morning. Before he could even cry out the pain released him from its grip and he was able to regain his composure. "Pearl?" Steven looked around but couldn't see her. Just as suddenly as he had spotted her she was gone.

"What was…but she…Pearl? Amethyst! What's going on here!?"

The dreams of Pearl, Amethyst running away from him; suddenly nothing in his world was making any sense. He was standing in the middle of a suburban cul-de-sac at the far end of Beach City. How had he even gotten there? Three weeks ago he had been with the gems and everything was fine but now…

Steven could hear his mind cracking. "I've got to see Garnet, she'll know what's going on."

000

Steven came heavy as he dragged his feet through the sand.

*Huff huff* "I-I used to just warp here I didn't know the walk would be so far." He said wiping sweat from his brow as he trudged his way towards the temple entrance.

Opening the door to the beach side shack that led to the inner temple Steven was hit with a wave of nostalgia. It had only been a short while but to him it felt as though he were some long awaited hero returning to his ancestral home; glad to be back but feeling a stranger in his own home. Was he even welcome here anymore? Steven strode through the door with a sense that somehow this one moment was going to solve everything.

"Alright me." He said to no one in particular. "I'm just going to pop in for a quick visit with Garnet and she'll tell me that I'm not crazy and that I can go back to being a crystal gem again. Yup, just gotta find Garnet and then…"

The plan had sounded better in his head. Worse yet he wasn't even sure where Garnet might be. Steven only had access to his mother's room within the temple and Garnet could be in any one of the areas he couldn't reach or she could be on a mission or…or maybe she didn't want to see him. Suddenly Steven felt very lonely in this familiar place.

*argh* "Stupid gem! Why couldn't you have worked like I wanted you to? Why did you have to…to…to make me…I-I didn't want to hurt her." Steven sobbed as he pounded the gem on his stomach with a fist and only came away with a sharp sting where his fist had made contact. *sigh* "I guess I can't blame her or Amethyst for not wanting to be around me."

Before he could even turn to leave a bright light filled the room and Garnet stepped off the temple's warp pad looking worse for wear. Her jumpsuit standard was ripped and torn around the legs and her shoulders were covered in a thick moss that hung down to her waist. Her perfectly square hair was a mess with broken sticks poking out of it here and there giving it the appearance of a bird's nest but still it was garnet all the same.

"Uh, hey Garnet I'm back"*heheh* he laughed nervously.

It took her a moment to realize who she was looking at before she took a step back in surprise.

"S-Steven!? What…Why are you…what are you doing here?" She stammered trying to compose herself.

"Garnet I-I wanted to ask you…" *oomph*

Before he could even get the words out Garnet had crossed the room, knelt down, and wrapped her arms around him. Oh god she's trying to kill me were his first thoughts until he realized she wasn't squeezing the life out of him. Steven returned the hug only to find Garnet was shaking.

"Uh, Garnet? Are you crying?"

"No. I don't cry. I'm just happy to see you alive and well is all." she said wiping nonexistent tears from the corner of her eyes.

Steven gave her a quizzical look. "Oh, um, okay well that's good. I-I just thought that you guys wouldn't want to see me again after…."

"Pearl." Garnet finished for Steven. *sigh* "I figured you'd probably swing by to see her at some point I just wish I had more time to deal with the present situation."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Nothing, never you mind that now." Garnet stood up and gave Steven a warm smile before walking over to the temple door. "Come, you should see her. I know Pearl would want you to."

Now Steven was at a complete lose. "What? B-but Dad said Pearl was…you know, dead."

Garnet stopped for a moment allowing him to catch up before heading towards the door again. "Well Steven it's a little difficult to explain this but I guess in the same way humans have beliefs centered around what happens after death so to do the gems. In our culture it is thought that a gem never really dies but rather spreads her energies throughout the universe until she is ready to reconsolidate , taking a piece of the universe with her when she does. This ensures that the new gem is stronger than the one that came before it and thus we evolve."

They stopped just outside the temple door. Steven waited for Garnet to activate the door that would lead to their destination. "Wow" He said. "I never really thought of the gems like that before."

*sigh* "To be honest Steven I don't think many have. Humans are a little self-centered in their world view."

The sapphire and ruby gems in the palms of her hands glowed bright as she pressed them against the door. It immediately split in half at her touch revealing a room unlike anything Steven had seen before. There was a rows of pillars on either side of them that led to what looked like a throne some giant would use to sit in. Big puffy white clouds covered the floor and hung low in the air. Everything else was a bright reddish orange crystal that gave the room a holy, reverent look. Yet, there was some battle damage, a pillar had the top broken off and something heavy had been thrown into one of the walls.

A breathless "Whoa" was all Steven could get out at the site of the room.

Garnet took Steven by the hand. "Hm, it is impressive isn't it Steven? Come on, Pearl is just up ahead."

Being led by the hand to an ornate throne amongst clouds reminded Steven of bible imagery. Of a lone angel leading the dead to the gates of heaven. That's crazy I'm not dead he told himself.

"This is it." Garnet said coming to an abrupt stop just before the "throne".

Getting a closer look at it Steven realized that it wasn't a throne, not in the traditional sense anyways. The red orange crystal backing actually extended far beyond the "seat" making it the back wall of the room obscured by the low hanging clouds. The "seat" was actually a red quilted glass enclosure with some gems placed upon indents in the fabric. There were so many different types of gems here. Some had flat smooth surfaces like glass while others were jagged and spiked and each one was a different color but they all shared one commonality: they were broken or cracked. Pearl's gem lay front and center on the alter a large gash ran along the length of it and chunks of it had clearly been broken off and never found. They were probably still on the cave floor or vaporized.

Garnet continued with her explanation. "You see, even though we believe that the gem will be reincarnated we preserve the body the gem left behind to remember the deeds of the gem's previous life."

"B-but this doesn't make any sense." Steven protested. "I saw Pearl retreat into her gem. I mean I may have hurt her but she still had a chance to recover. Her gem definitely wasn't this broken."

Garnet put a hand on his shoulder. "Steven, I understand that you suffered some head trauma from a falling rock and were unconscious for a time after the cave-in. I don't know what exactly it is you think happened but I do know that you don't realize the kind of power you released in those caves. Steven, that blast nearly took off my head. You destroyed most of the relay tower and killed almost all of the spider gems for us. That was how we were able to escape. We were lucky Pearl was the only one to die there."

Steven couldn't let it go, however, the image had been so clear in his mind. That's not how it happened he was sure of it, but why then did Garnet have such a different story?

"Look Steven." Garnet began as she knelt bringing their faces to a height. "You shouldn't blame yourself for this. We all knew about your gem pains and should have seen it for what it was. Regardless, we decided to risk it anyways and for that I just wanted to say I'm sorry. That's not something you should have to have gone through."

"I still see her in my dreams you know." Steven wasn't sure what made him blurt it out so suddenly but he needed to get it off his chest.

Garnet continued to kneel her face going from surprise to confusion and back to surprise as if she were trying to work the details out on her face. "W-what? What do you…"

"She keeps telling me to wake up and just now I saw her in town right after Amethyst…"

Garnet was suddenly alert again "Amethyst!? Steven you saw Amethyst?"

"Yeah she was running away from…"

"Are you hurt?"

"What? No why?"

Garnet breathed a sigh of relief and came in for a hug. "Oh, Steven you know Amethyst. She can be...a little unstable from time to time and this whole mess did not sit well with her. Steven eyed the broken column and the cracks that had been smashed into the walls again.

"How bad was it? Your fight I mean."

Garnet gave him a long hard look "It was…manageable."

She wore it well but Steven could sense that beneath her stoic mask Garnet was in turmoil.

"Steven." She said suddenly. "I need you to promise me something." Steven nodded his head yes not knowing what he was agreeing to "Steven I want you to know that I don't say this lightly but right now Amethyst is very unpredictable. She may even see you as a threat. The whole reason why I convinced your father to move further from the temple was to keep you safe. You know it pains me to say this but, for the moment, you need to stay away from her. Amethyst is dangerous."